Following their performance at the International Amphitheatre in Chicago, the Beatles and their
entourage were flown to Detroit Michigan on September 6th 1964, as the 14th stop of their 1964 North
American Tour.

The Motor City was the place of origin for the music the Beatles had professed to love in almost
every interview and press conference -- The Detroit Sound, and the recording artists of the
Tamla-Motown label.

The Beatles would perform two shows at Olympia Stadium. The press conference was held backstage at
the Olympia between the two performances.

From here, the Beatles would fly from Detroit to Toronto as their 1964 North American Tour pressed
onward.

- Jay Spangler, www.beatlesinterviews.org

DEREK TAYLOR: (to the press) "If anyone would like to raise their hand."

Q: "How do you like Detroit so far?"

JOHN: "Great."

PAUL: "What we've seen of it."

(laughter)

JOHN: "We see very little. The show, we enjoyed."

Q: "Is it a disappointment not to see it?"

JOHN: "No. We come here to play, not to see, you know."

PAUL: "We saw a bit of it though."

Q: "Does that noise out there go away with a little bit of cotton packed way deep
in your ear so that the noise..."

JOHN & PAUL: "No."

JOHN: "We're used to it."

GEORGE: "We're immune to it."

Q: "It doesn't upset your musical balance?"

PAUL: "It sounds nice."

Q: "Which artist or musical group do you think has most influenced your
music?"

JOHN: "Because when Paul and I were fiddlin' 'round it and they heard it,
they sang it good. So we gave it to them."

Q: "They do a great job."

JOHN: "They're good, aren't they. The new one's out, too"

PAUL: "Yeah, the new one."

JOHN: "Get THAT."

PAUL: "At your local record stores. 'I Don't Want To See You Again.'"

DEREK TAYLOR: "'I Don't Want To See You Again,' Peter and Gordon."

PAUL: (jokingly) "That's not a plug, though."

Q: "Which one's idea was it to let the hair grow long?"

PAUL: "It wasn't..."

JOHN: "We always... We met each other with long hair, didn't we."

GEORGE: "Yes."

PAUL: "Well, it wasn't really THIS long, but it was longer than average.
It wasn't just an idea that we suddenly got saying, you know, 'Haha, that'll be a gimmick.'
In fact, we didn't even know it was a gimmick until somebody told us it was, you know.
Somebody kept asking, you know... People from the press said 'What's with the hair?' 'It's
like everybody else's, isn't it?' We were a bit stupid in those days."

Q: "Who are the fierce competitors of the Beatles?"

JOHN: "Elvis."

PAUL: "Sophie Tucker."

(laughter)

Q: "Does he still sell that many records?"

JOHN: "Yeah, and he does well, him. You know, he's not messing about."

Q: "Next to the Beatles, who is your favorite British group?"

GEORGE: "Animals."

JOHN & RINGO: "The Stones."

PAUL: " And The searchers."

Q: "The Animals opened at the Paramount in New York and it was half-empty."

Q: "When the show is over for the day, and you guys head back to your apartment
and houses, do you listen to record albums?"

JOHN: "Sometimes. Not very often."

Q: "What kind do you listen to?"

JOHN: "Rock and Roll."

PAUL: "Or the ones we were talking about before, especially the ones made
here in Detroit."

Q: "But not (Count) Basie or (George) Shearing?"

BEATLES: "No."

GEORGE: "I've got a Shearing album, but you've got to be in a good mood
to listen to him."

PAUL: "We're not very keen jazz fans. We like a bit of all kinds of music."

Q: "How about George Gershwin? Jerome Kearn? Cole Porter?"

JOHN: "They're okay, you know, but I don't go potty over them."

(laughter)

PAUL: "They're great, you know, but we like other things."

Q: "Have you had a chance to meet Elvis Presley, and if so, what was his
reaction to you?"

JOHN: "We haven't met him. We'd like to, you know."

Q: "How about Mancini?"

JOHN: "Henry Mancini?"

PAUL: "He's great!"

GEORGE: "In fact, we met him in a nightclub in London, actually, though I
think he never noticed."

DEREK TAYLOR: "Can we keep the noise down a bit? Can we have the noise down
just a little bit at the back?"

Q: "I'd like to direct a question to Ringo. Is it true that you have stated you'd
like to be a disc jockey if you were not in the Beatles?"

RINGO: "Umm, no. Someone said 'What were you gonna do when it's all finished,' and
I said 'I don't know but it'd be good fun being a DJ.' And since then I've become a DJ,
only by word of mouth, you know. SO any minute now you'll read, 'Ringo leaves to
become a DJ' but it's not true."

Q: "Ringo, are you engaged?"

RINGO: "No, I'm not engaged. You only have to take somebody out and the marriage
is off already, you don't stand a chance."

JOHN: (to Ringo) "You don't stand a chance, do ya."

Q: "How about you, John, when it's all over... do you have any plans?"

JOHN: "No, you know. No plans, no. Why plan?"

PAUL: "Well, you know, the only thing that really sounds like a plan
is that John and I will probably carry on songwriting. But other than that,
nobody's made any plans."

Q: "Fellas, I know Euorpe soccer is the big sport. Do you have any favorite
sport here in America, such as Baseball or American football?"

JOHN & RINGO: "We don't like ANY sport."

PAUL: "Very unsporting, really. Smoking is a sport."

Q: "What do you think of the Dave Clark Five and the Rolling Stones?"

RINGO: "Well, the Rolling Stones are good."

JOHN: "We just remarked on that. We like the Stones, you know. Dave
Clark's alright, but we prefer the Stones."

Q: "John, are you working on a new book yet?"

JOHN: "Yeah."

Q: "You are? Any idea when it will be out?"

JOHN: "Oh no, you know. (giggling) Just, when I finish it."

Q: "How do you compare American radio and British radio?"

GEORGE: "You can't compare it, really, because in England there's
the BBC and then two commercial stations which are outside of Britain...
outside of the zone. In America, in each city, they have about thirty.
So you can't compare it."

RINGO: "It's much better over here."

JOHN: "It's more fun over here, though, the radio."

PAUL: "It's more exciting, the radio here."

Source: Transcribed by www.beatlesinterviews.org from audio copy of the press conference